Post navigation

Traffic nightmare at McCartney Candlestick show

Here’s an understatement: Traffic to and from the Paul McCartney farewell show at Candlestick Park on Thursday night was awful.

Some ticket holders have even reported missing the show altogether due to the gridlock. One of our reporters on the scene, Peter Hartlaub, said it took him more than three and a half hours to get from Oakland to the show. And it’s clear from Twitter (see below) that traffic afterward wasn’t any better, with some concertgoers saying that cars didn’t move for an hour and a half…

Zarine Batliwalla, a 61-year-old real estate agent based in Hillsborough, was one of those who missed the show. She and a friend drove from the Peninsula, leaving around 6 p.m., but it took them three hours to get near Candlestick. Once there, she said, it took them more than two hours just to get outside of the parking lot.

The lines to get into the parking lot, she said, were five cars deep. At around 11 p.m., they saw cars leaving the show — and they decided to do the same themselves… (more)

San Francisco tourism just took a dive. These fans will never come for another concert. Some demand refunds.

RELATED:

Traffic keeps some fans out of Paul McCartney concert
Thursday night’s final concert at Candlestick Park drew thousands of fans, but left other Paul McCartney fans out in the cold.
Petaluma’s Jennifer Cass spent $800 for four tickets to the Candlestick Park-closing show. She also spent seven hours in traffic with her siblings, viewing a sea of brake lights and disabled vehicles blocking lanes of Highway 101. They never got to see the show.
The concert is billed as the “Out There Tour,” but Cass had a different name for it. “It’s the ‘Stuck Out There’ concert,” she told KTVU Friday.
“All of us had been to many, many events at Candlestick Park and we’ve never experienced such gridlock. There was no police presence once we entered the park, there were no parking attendants telling us where to go,” she said.Pat Silveri of Novato requested a $374 refund from Ticketmaster and says the city should’ve done better planning for the event. After a three hour wait in traffic, she says a parking attendant told her she should go home.“The parking attendant that came to my car said that they were turning away thousands of people,” said Silveri

“I’ve Been Stuck in This Crud”: Fan Says of ‘Stick Traffic”…
And the headaches weren’t much better for those who took public transportation. NBC Bay Area’s Gonzalo Rojas was in San Francisco, shooting video of long lines and crowded platforms at Muni, with everyone champing at the bit to get to hear McCartney swoon one last time…” (more)